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Which name upon marriage? Family names of women in Finland
Sirkka Paikkala
DOI: 10.2436/15.8040.01.88
Abstract
In Finland, married women were made subject to the legal obligation to use their husband’s family name from
Marriage Act 1930 to the new, revised Family Names Act 1985. At the latest during the period the the
patriarchal system to choice a family name upon marriage was adopted in the hole country. After the new Names
Act – which allowed both spouses also to keep their own family name as such - entered into force, 92.1% of the
women still chose to adopt the husband’s name as their common family name as such or with their maiden
name. The share of married couples to choose just the husband’s name was 85.1%. Until 2009, the new family
name law led to certain tendencies where choosing the husband’s family name as the exclusive family name
diminished by more than 16 percent points and keeping one’s own family name increased by over 15 percent
points. In 2010, there was a weak turn to choosing husband's name again at the expense of keeping one's own
family name but also a gradual new trend where a couple to be married wishes to choose an entirely new name
common to both spouses.
*****
One of last year’s (2010) topical debates in the Finnish media was which name women
choose once they get married: do they choose to keep their maiden name as such, or do they
take their husband’s family name either as such or with their maiden name as a doublebarrelled name – and is there a specific tendency that can be detected? Choosing the
husband’s family name is often motivated by saying that it is an established way of acting,
more romantic, or that all the family members should have a common name. Further, the idea
that using the husband’s family name in marriage is an “ancient tradition” seems to persist.
Especially in the countryside, there may also be strong pressure from the family to choose the
husband’s name: it is considered important that the land property are inherited within one
family and symbolized by a family carrying the same family name.
Regulation on women’s family names in Finland
Finland’s first Family Names Act was issued in 1920. According to it everyone should use a
permanent family name. Those who did not have a family name at the time would have to
acquire one within a year. Since the question about women’s family names could not be
solved during the parliamentary handling of the bill, it was decided that the issue should be
left to the forthcoming Marriage Act. Regarding the wife’s family name, it was only stated in
the first law on family names that a wife would be entitled to her husband’s family name, and
that she would still be entitled to it after a divorce if she was raising children from that
marriage or if agreed with the husband otherwise.
The Marriage Act was laid down in 1929. It provided that a wife should carry her husband’s
family name either as such or as combined with her own family name. Such double-barrelled
and hyphenated names, however, were not passed on to the following generations.
Previous use of surnames
Thus, it was only from 1930 onwards that married women were made subject to the legal
obligation to use their husband’s family name. The previous use of family names had to do,
on the one hand, with the family name system of the estate society and, on the other hand,
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with the degree of independency a woman had as a spouse and widow. Among the nobility,
women’s maiden names were considered important even in marriage as markers of their own
families and the consequent rights of inheritance, as well as supporters of the husbands’
position. (Mäkelä-Alitalo 1999; Paikkala 2004: 559) The trend towards adopting the
husband’s family name as the surname of both spouses started in the Finnish upper estates in
the 18th century – i.e. among the nobility, the clergy, and the bourgeoisie – apparently
following a European model (Blomqvist 1993: 208; Paikkala 1989: 14 and 1997: 117;
Valtavuo-Pfeifer 1996: 34). Among the peasantry, there were very few instances of the use of
the husband’s family name prior to the middle of the 19th century; and in those cases, the
husband's family name was nearest used by widows once they remarried.
In practice, it was the hierarchy and ownership relations prevalent in society that led wives to
adopt their husband’s name. The 1713 rank order defined the hierarchical positions between
the officers and public offices. Following these principles, the common law on marriage of
1734 provided that women should follow their husband’s estate and class. Although the
legislation only referred to “house and estate”, instead of mentioning the wife’s family name,
this pair of concepts was soon considered to include even the family name (Mäkelä-Alitalo
1999). For example, as early as in the 1747 rank order of the postil of Johan Wegelius, vicar
of Oulu, it was mentioned that wives should be called by their husband’s surnames.
Among Finnish peasantry, however, a woman’s family name was determined according to
whether she was part of the eastern Finnish peasantry or whether she came from the western
Finnish regions, where patronyms and house names were used instead of family names. In
Eastern Finland, daughters inherited their family names from their father and retained them
even after they got married; this tradition continued up to the early years of the 20th century
in certain areas. – In contrast, in Western Finland, men and women who did not belong to any
estate (e.g. hired workers) or who belonged to peasantry, did not use family names at all. It
often happened that the house name - surname they were given was the name of the house
they were living in or the name of the house in which they had been born. In the case of
women whose families used a family name because of a change in their social position (e.g.
because of starting school education), the name that was registered for them was that of their
father’s or brother’s – not their husband’s.
New Names Act 1985
The obligation to use the husband’s family name was abolished in Finland in 1986. One year
before, a new Names Act had been passed, entitling the spouses to adopt the name of either
spouse either as such or combined with one’s own family name – i.e. as a double-barrelled
name – or to keep their own family name as such.
MARRIAGE
CHILD’S FAMILY NAME
Ville Virta ∞ Liisa Virta
Emma Virta
Ville Lumo ∞ Liisa Lumo
Emma Lumo
Ville Virta ∞ Liisa Lumo-Virta
Emma Virta
Ville Virta-Lumo ∞ Liisa Lumo
Emma Lumo
Ville Virta ∞ Liisa Lumo
Emma Virta or Emma Lumo
(if the parents do not agree on the child’s name, the child will be given the mother’s
family name.)
Figure 1. Family name options in marriage since 1986.
Fictitious persons Mr. Ville Virta and Ms. Liisa Lumo as examples.
The law thus abolished the wife’s obligation to adopt her husband’s family name, laid down
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by the Marriage Act; in fact, the juridical obligation was only in force for 56 years.
Choosing family names in marriage after the new name legislation
The Finnish population registering system was made uniform in the middle of the 1960s, as
the digital population register was created. The digital register enables the compilation of
various statistics for different research needs. Thus, the database of the Population Register
Centre provides information on, e.g., the choice of family names by married couples every
year since 1986, with the exception of three years (1999-2001). I have drafted the following
figures on the basis of those statistics.
Figure 2. Choice of family name in marriage 1986-2010
The situation at the end of the year 1986 is crucial, since it reflects clearly the practice coined
during the previous patriarchal family name system. After the new Names Act entered into
force, 92.1% of the spouses still chose to adopt the husband’s name as their common family
name. The share of married couples to choose just the husband’s name was 85.1%. Doublebarrelled names were chosen by 7.0% of women. In Finland, double barrelled names refer to
names consisting of two family names combined by a dash, e.g., Sibelius-Luhtala. Such
names are not passed on to the children. As for marriages where both spouses decided to keep
their own family names, their share went up to 7.5%.
The first clear turning point could be detected in 1990. It was then that women’s choosing
double-barrelled names reached its peak, covering up to 9.1% of all married women; after
that it took a slight downward turn again. At the same time, we can see an opposite curve in
keeping one´s own family name.
It seems evident that this change was due to a desire to keep one’s own family name; the
following year (1991), up to 10.4% of women decided to keep their maiden names.
Unfortunately, there are no regional statistics available; however, in general it can be said that
keeping one’s own family name has been more popular in cities and among more educated
women who have made their own careers than it has been with country people. We could
presume that a reason for the 1990 change was that during the previous five years that had
passed since the law had been enacted, this new freedom of choice had become more widely
known, which added to people’s courage to make new choices.
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Figure 3. Women’s choice of double-barrelled names in marriage from 1986 to 2010.
Figure 4. Keeping one’s own family name in marriage 1986-2010.
The new family name law led to certain tendencies that could be seen clearly until 2009:
firstly: Choosing the husband’s family name as the exclusive family name diminished by
more than 16 percent points; secondly: women’s choice of double-barrelled names
diminished only slightly, i.e. 0.1 percent points; thirdly: keeping one’s own family name
increased by over 15 percent points; and finally: marriages where the wife’s name was
adopted as the common name increased by 1.2 percent points.
This figure does, in fact, reflect most accurately the change that has taken place in the choice
of family names by women, since the predominant practice still is that the husband’s name is
chosen as the common name exclusively.
The year 2010 downward turn
There was a slight turn in women’s family names in the 2010 statistics: choosing the
husband’s name as such or in addition to the wife’s own name took a slight upward curve,
whereas the decision to keep just one’s own family name fell to a respective degree, i.e. by
one percent point.
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Figure 5. Women holding the husband’s name as such or as a combination vs.
keeping one’s own family name from 1986 to 2010.
The question arises whether such a trend could reflect a change in attitudes towards a more
conservative direction, towards the imagined ancient tradition? Could this be part of the same
phenomenon as the victory of the conservative True Finns party in the Finnish Parliamentary
election of 2011? Be that as it may, we cannot yet say whether the downward turn of 2011 is
permanent or temporary as a phenomenon. Namely, an almost similar change took place in
2005, after which there was a return to the previous trend. And, the rise in the share of
marriages where the husband’s name is chosen as the common family name is also affected
by an increase in the number of consensual unions e.g. cohabitations without marriage; thus,
the number of couples where both spouses use their own family names is even bigger in
reality. All in all, consensual unions are a significant form of families, since slightly more
than 21% of all Finnish families are based on them. In 1984, their respective share was less
than 10% (Aromaa & Cantell & Jaakkola 1981; Aarnio & Kangas 2010: 236).
Choosing the husband’s name
The women who have opted for their husband’s name often motivate their choice by tradition
and the fact that they want the entire family to have the same name, if they are going to have
children. Thus, whilst choosing a common name, it is the husband’s name that is chosen,
even though the common name could just as well be the wife’s family name. In fact, this
seems to reflect a patriarchal conception of marriage and the status of the head of the family.
This often also has to do with the family’s expectations, which may be more old-fashioned
especially in the countryside.
• ”It’s nice to have the same name for the entire family if we have kids. I think my maiden name
was much nicer than my present one, but a name’s just a name, after all” (KK 2010: 77).
• ”I want us to form a family together. And I want that family to have a common name, too.”
(KK 2010: 77)
• ”My husband’s name just sounded more beautiful than my former family name. - - I must
say that I was terrified at first, too. I’ve always considered myself a feminist and then I do
something that at least almost symbolically means that I become my husband’s property.”
(KK 2010: 77)
• A woman whose maiden name is Kissa (en Cat) chose her husband’s name because
“people always hear my name wrong”. They only call me by my family name and that
doesn’t really feel good.” (IS 2010: 17)
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The fact that choosing the husband’s name is so popular reflects the slow changing of certain
values in Finnish culture.
Keeping one’s own family name
The women who have decided to keep their own names motivate their decision by identity,
claiming that it is more practical, or by the fact that their maiden name is rare. Once they
have made their own careers using their own names, changing names would mean difficulties
in being recognized; and they would also need to obtain new identity documents, e.g.,
driver’s license, passport, banking information, etc. The growing number of divorces and
reconstituted families has also made people less willing to change their family names:
• ”I kept my own name. It is such a major part of my identity that it didn’t even occur to me
I should change it.” (KK 2010: 77)
• ”I would have needed a really weighty reason to change my name, tradition wasn’t a
strong enough reason for me”. (KK 2010:77)
• ”My parents had gone through some trouble trying to find me a forename that would suit
my family name, so I didn’t want to change my family name when I got married. I think
your name’s an important part of your identity”. (KK 2010:77)
• ”We couldn’t come up with a single good reason why either of us should have changed our
names [both spouses have rare names]. - - I didn’t want Sami to give up his name, which
he had already used whilst creating his career. For my part, I’ve somehow grown attached
to my name after I’ve lived with its good and bad aspects thus far.” (KV 2010)
The husband adopts the wife’s family name
A smaller, yet slightly increasing number of men have decided to adopt either a doublebarrelled name or just their wife’s name as their family name.
Figure 6. Men holding their wife’s name either as such or as a combination.
But when do men accept their wife’s name as their own? A couple of men interviewed about
this topic said that their spouse’s name was rare or that it was suitable as, e.g., an artist name
and, at the same time, they considered adopting their wife’s name as a conscious feminist
statement. One interviewee said: “I’m in harmony with my masculinity and changing my
name doesn’t make a difference. Some people may, of course, need to stick to these
accustomed symbols of masculinity.” (Wife’s comment: “At any rate it feels good that Ville
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took my name. It was beautiful and respectful.”) (KV 2010.) – Some men, in turn, have
chosen their wife’s name because they see it as more beautiful or more “elegant” than their
own family name.
New common name
In the course of the 21st century, there has been a gradual new trend where a couple to be
married wishes to choose an entirely new name common to both spouses. This way, the
spouses create an entirely new family, as it were, and the whole family receives a common
name – or a dispute over the choice of names can be solved in a compromise, as neither
spouse has to “submit to the other”. In such cases, it may happen that the spouses still wish to
preserve elements of their own family names, e.g., if the name consists of two parts, it may
contain elements from the family names of both spouses, e.g., Reinikainen and Mäkinen >
Reinimäki (MN 2010: 8).
Other examples include:
Vaajala ∞ Höykinpuro → Vaajapuro (fi vaaja ’a pole attached to a fish trap in water’; fi
puro ’stream, brook’) (OMN 31 May 2011).
Oravainen (< fi orava ’ squirrel’) ∞ Vainio → Oravainio (fi ora ’thorn’, fi vainio ’field’
(OMN 13 April 2011). Kinnunen (ex Vuorinen) ∞ Kuuva → Kuuvuori (fi kuu ’moon’,
vuori ’mountain’) (OMN 13 April 2011 ).
A couple may also apply for an entirely new name,
e.g., Kuosmanen ja Helenius → Kuuranta (fi kuu ’ moon’, fi ranta ’beach’) (OMN 13
April 2011). Kannisto & Salminen → Korkiajärvi (fi korkia ’high’, fi järvi ’lake’)
(OMN 9 September 2010).
However, it is not allowed to choose just any name as the new family name. The previous
Family Names Act from 1920 forbade the adoption of family names that were “unidiomatic
or inappropriate” ( Laki sukunimestä 328/1920, 9. §). According to the new Names Act
(Nimilaki 694/1985, 11. §.) “a new family name shall not be one that is inappropriate or
whose use otherwise causes obvious problems. A new family name is not acceptable without
a specific reason if:
1) its form or orthography is contrary to the domestic name practices;
2) it is generally used as a forename; or
3) it has been formed by combining two family names.”
Consistency with the domestic name practices is evaluated according to the present
orthographic norms and the types of family names already in use. A name is considered a
combination of family names, as hyphenated surnames, if its both parts can be independent
family names and they are combined by a dash. According to this, Mr Reinikainen and Ms
Mäkinen would not have been allowed to adopt the name Reini-Mäki; however, when the
parts are written as one single word Reinimäki, it may have been accepted as a new
independent entity.
Examples of names that have not been approved:
Ruotsalainen & Tsukada applied for the name ”Shinrauha”; (Japanses shin ’heart’, fi
rauha ’peace’; it was not approved; due to the mixing of two languages and as nonconsistent with both the Finnish and the Japanese name practices. (OMN 5 May 2010)
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Bergholm & Grönkvist applied for the name “Berkvist”; it was not approved, since it was
considered unidiomatic, ber not being Swedish. Since the name Bergkvist (sv berg ’)
already exists, the name could not be approved in that form, either. However, the
orthography Bärkvist (sv bär ’berry’, sv kvist ’twig, branch’ was approved, in case the
spouses wanted to adopt it. (OMN 11 January 2011). - In Finland, Swedish is also an
official language and Swedish names are therefore considered to belong to the domestic
name practice.
A new common name is applied for by some 30 married couples or couples planning to get
married annually. In general, they seem to have been thinking about the names carefully,
since most of the suggested names are linguistically correct and nice and natural in content;
they often refer to nature as toponyms and may even be idyllic. Only time will tell how these
names will affect Finnish family names in general and what their share will be.
Bibliography
Acts
Laki sukunimestä 328/1920. [Family Names Act.] Repealed by law: 694/1985 .
Nimilaki [Names Act] 1991/695, http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/1985/19850694 .
Sukunimilaki [Family Names Act] 694/1985; from 1991 Nimilaki [Names Act].
OMN = Oikeusministeriön nimilautakunnan pöytäkirjat. [Minutes of the Ministry of Justice
Names Board.]
Interviews in magazines
KK = Lehmuskoski, Susanna 2010: Mikä naiselle nimeksi? [What name for a woman?]. In:
Kodin Kuvalehti magazine 16/2010.
IS = Latva-Mantila, Pirjo 2010: Anteeksi, mikä nimi? [Pardon me, what was your name
again?]. In: Ilta-Sanomat 19.1.2010.
KV = Vehmanen, Mari 2010: naisen sukunimestä [On women’s family names]. In: Kotivinkki
magazine 2010.
MN = Me Naiset magazine 17.6.2010.
Books and articles
Aarnio, Aulis; Kangas, Urpo. 2010. Perhevarallisuusoikeus. [Family Property Rights]
Helsinki: Talentum.
Aromaa, Kauko; Cantell, Ilkka & Jaakkola, Risto. 1981: Avoliitto. Tutkimuksia avoliiton
yleisyydestä ja yleistymisestä Suomessa. [Consensual Union. Studies on the generality
and generalization of the consensual union in Finland.] Publications by the National
Research Institute of Legal Policy 49/1981. Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittinen tutkimuslaitos.
Blomqvist, Marianne. 1993. Personnamnsboken [Book on Personal Names]. Helsingfors: Oy
Finn Lectura.
Mäkelä-Alitalo, Anneli. 1999. Naisen oma nimi [A woman's own name]. In: Lapin Kansa
newspaper, the professional column Alakerta 18.7.1999. Rovaniemi, Finland.
Paikkala, Sirkka. 1989: Sen nimi kenen lammas. Naisten sukunimistä Savossa. [The sheep
will be named by owner. Women’s family names in Savo.] In: Sukuviesti journal 7-8: 1214. Helsinki: Sukuyhteisöjen Tuki ry.
Paikkala, Sirkka. 1997. Finnische Familiennamen und europäischer Zeitgeist. In: Studia
Anthroponymica Scandinavica 15. 113-131. Uppsala.
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Paikkala, Sirkka. 2004. Se tavallinen Virtanen. Suomalaisen sukunimikäytännön
modernisoituminen 1850-luvulta vuoteen 1921. [The ordinary Virtanen. The
Moderniszation of the Finnisg Surname Practices from the 1850s to 1921.] Helsinki:
Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.
Valtavuo-Pfeifer, Ritva. 1996. Namn i gränstad mellan väst och öst. Om tillnamn i
Fredrikshamn 1726-1860 [Names in a Border Town between West and East. On Surnames
in Hamina 1726-1860]. In: Studia Anthroponymica Scandinavica 14: 21-36. Uppsala.
Sirkka Paikkala, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor
Institute for the Languages of Finland
Vuorikatu 24
FI-00100 Helsinki
Finland
[email protected]
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